Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 10/12

It was a club event, that said there are midweek races pretty much every week in the North of England. If I was that way inclined in the Summer I could probably race 5 times a week.

It's been fun to read these threads and see what other people are doing in their training. I also tend to run my long runs faster than the other easy runs. Treating the long run like a workout (running it quicker and giving myself proper recovery before/after) has really helped me. For this training block I have been aiming for around 6:40/mile on my long runs, while my other easy runs can be anywhere from 7-8 min/mile (and usually toward the slower end of that!) The general formula my coach gives me is marathon pace + 30s per kilometer for long runs (as a side note, I log my distance in miles, but workouts are usually given to me in kilometers).

During this training block I've experimented a bit with "moderate" runs at around 95% of marathon pace. I haven't done many long runs at that pace yet, usually 12-13 miles at 6:15-6:25/mile. I assume that the distance of these moderate runs will increase in future builds, or my long runs will get faster and approach that "moderate" pace. Of course, marathon pace is always a moving target, so everything shifts down as you get fitter. I'd like to try some 20+ mile long runs at around 95% of marathon pace in the future, but I'll need to keep progressing towards that gradually.

I know it's a little late but here's my week. I'm a highschool XC runner on a deep team in New York with a 5K PR of 18:27.

Monday: Just a run. 35ish minutes with weightroom at the end. 7:30ish pace, strides included. Felt fine.

Tuesday: League (required by our county, 5K) meet today, which I thought we were all just going to tempo until only 55 minutes before the race, when our coach told everyone except the top 7 that we should go all-out today because we won't have many more chances in the season. Luckily I was healthy and ready for it, but I wasn't quite able to stick on the lead pack of 4 people and came somewhere around 8th in 18:46. Still finished ahead of the other teams (we sweeped top 10). Happy with the placing and did the best I could do on short notice.

Wednesday: Got some solid quicker work in the day after our race. 20 minute warmup, a semi-fast 1K to warm up the fast twitch muscles, then 4x400 at around 72s average, then two 200s at 800 pace (33s). This was all on the grass but spiked up.

Thursday: Recovery day; 35 minute run at talk-to-the-birds pace followed by some light work in the weightroom. Felt fine even after two days of hard work.

Friday: Race prep for VCP. 20 minute run and then practiced getting out like at the cowpath (AKA, fast). Then did a few 200s on flat ground at 4K pace. Felt pretty psyched.

Saturday: Raced: 4K in a JV race at the Manhattan Invitational. I wrote a pretty detailed race analysis on this (as I do after most major races) which is here:

http://sprunge.us/gMFj

Hopefully you can see I take a little bit of inspiration from LRC with the QTs there ;)

Sunday: 25 minute eaaaasy recovery run with some flexibility at my school (coach wasn't there though). Actually felt better than a few weeks ago the day after we last raced at VCP.

A good week with a very mentally exhausting race at the end of it. Now we're just getting ready for our county meet a few weeks from now.

The Stone Cutter: Nice tempo! I am very familiar with your drawstring issue- right up there with "holes in the liner" in terms of annoying running issues.

Pikachu Nice week! Seems like you're already in solid shape

Forcerunner Good luck at Columbus!

Lakerunner Rough race. I'm no doctor, but the electrolytes certainly sound like they could be the issue.

cmm268 Thanks! Good luck Sunday.

Hereford Easily doing a half at goal pace sounds pretty encouraging to me.

NP1112 Thanks. I might try to sneak in another half this season, but since I live in New England the end is rapidly approaching. Might do one in Narragansett (home of the mediocre beer!) if things work out.

Illinoisphotographer Yep, through the zoo and onto the track. It's a fun race, definitely recommended -- plus it's "only" like $65.

Good luck to everyone running tomorrow!! Hope everyone hits their goal.:)